Speaker 0 | 00:09.704

So everyone out there listening, we’re talking with Aldino Parchment. And Aldino, head of information technology, Paramount Global from Panama. What was your first computer? Just curious. How did you get started in this nightmare we call technology?

Speaker 1 | 00:28.484

Hey Phil, I just want to, first of all, thank you for this opportunity to just, you know, talk and just talk about technology, which is the, we live in an exciting era where technology is driving every single business out there.

Speaker 0 | 00:46.088

It is wild. It is really wild. I love talking about, it doesn’t, people are like, you’re a broken record, Phil, but I don’t ever get tired of talking about how much it’s changed, you know? If you don’t mind me asking, I’m only asking your age because I need to know in a timeline of where you sit in the technology spectrum. How old are you?

Speaker 1 | 01:09.358

Ouch. I am almost 48. December 9 will be my 48th.

Speaker 0 | 01:15.981

So we’re like the same age. I’m 45. We can call each other the same age because I look at you now. I’m 45. It’s like I’m 40. You’re 48. It’s like you’re 42. This is just how I have to think about this.

Speaker 1 | 01:25.286

Hey, 40s are the new what? 20s?

Speaker 0 | 01:28.256

I don’t know. I heard the other day that 60s. I heard the 60s are the new 40s. So I’m hoping that I’m 60.

Speaker 1 | 01:34.040

Wow. I’m a teenager or infant.

Speaker 0 | 01:41.045

All right. Okay. So you know very well what it was like to be around during the dawn of the internet, which is just crazy. I don’t know. How old were you? How long were you in Panama for? When did you leave Panama?

Speaker 1 | 01:57.184

Wow, so I lived in Panama probably the first 13 years of my life, 13, 14, somewhere around there. Okay. Then I moved to Costa Rica. I told you I’m kind of like a nomad, move around quite a bit. I could say the same thing too,

Speaker 0 | 02:14.688

I’ve moved way too many times.

Speaker 1 | 02:16.549

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then I found Costa Rica. I lived one year in Nicaragua, went back to Costa Rica after that one year. And then… For my undergrad, I went to Puerto Rico. And after Puerto Rico, I moved to Miami. After Miami, I moved to Southern California. And I’ve been in Southern California ever since. My oldest daughter right now is 20 years old. So that’s how long I’ve been in California for 20 years. There you go. That’s the longest I’ve been in one place, one city, one country.

Speaker 0 | 02:51.539

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So, 48. minus 20. I’m going to go back to first grade, which I stayed back in first grade, do math there, so 28. So, what was your first intermittent experience with technology? Like, at what point were you like, this is just, you know, really cool, this is what I want to do? Do you remember? Is there like something very specific that you can remember?

Speaker 1 | 03:15.337

I don’t know. I was just, I just fell in love with computers and technology. Every time I used to watch movie, a… military movie that, you know, those suits and the green screen, you know, they’re not doing anything. But yes, when I used to see the green screen and they’re trying to fix some problem or trying to hack in or whatever case may be, it used to, my eyes used to lit up. I was like, wow, I want to be in technology so bad.

Speaker 0 | 03:45.241

Yeah, the old hacking movies made you think like, even Tron and stuff, right? Like the old hacking movies. made you think that you could do like that, that hackers are like doing this like crazy wild stuff, you know, whereas nowadays it’s just someone like stealing your password or like they’re they don’t even, they don’t even have like technology skills. They just know how to like manipulate human beings, you know, emotionally and like information. It’s kind of lame. Um, so what was, um, so what How did you get to where you are now? As head of IT at a pretty good-sized company. How did that happen? How did we get there?

Speaker 1 | 04:28.055

Well, you know, my dad is in the education field. So I had no option but to go to school, to go to college. It wasn’t like, I’m done with high school. Let me find a job somewhere. No. It was like, you better go to college. And I was like, so I’m thankful for that.

Speaker 0 | 04:47.100

Um, I’m thankful for that. And I’m also, I’m thankful for that for many reasons. Uh, and many reasons I’m also thinking that. because when I speak with my kids nowadays, like they say, dad, do I have to go to college? I say, no, you don’t. Because I mean, I’d rather you go to trade school. I’d rather you go learn a very specific skill or learn something. But that very much was the mentality. And I don’t know if that’s true anymore, to be honest with you. The mentality of us growing up was you have to go to high school. If you don’t get to go to high school, like you’re going to get your GED, which is a good enough degree. And if you don’t graduate from high school, like good luck. Like, seriously, good luck. And if you don’t go to college after high school, then, you know, like, you’re like kind of a loser or something. That’s how I felt. You know what I mean? Like, that’s how I felt. But it’s not really fair because how many people are so successful that have never, you know, that, I don’t know, whatever. They even have like a really special skill or something like that. So there’s this constant debate in, you know, especially in technology nowadays. Like, do you need all these certifications? Do you need this? And the answer is sometimes yes. Sometimes, yes, you do, or you need it to prove something. But when you actually get into your day-to-day role, like you mentioned the other day, like you had, you know, my whole team, we rescheduled all these meetings, we were doing all these things. When you actually get into working with technology and doing it for real, and I guess this is the long-winded question, how much did the education help you or did it just get you where you need to be?

Speaker 1 | 06:21.947

It just got me well. It just opened up the door. That was just one step because, okay, we got to remember back then, if we are talking about technology, what were the career paths that we had? It was computer science or computer engineering.

Speaker 0 | 06:40.732

Yeah, exactly. And what did you do? I remember seeing a big thick C++ book on someone’s shelf and I was like, what the heck is that? I was a creative writing major. I had, you know, I had like Shakespeare, like Shakespeare on my shelf. And then there’s another room next door to me in college is the C++ book. I was like, that looks way too nerdy and lame for me. But

Speaker 1 | 07:09.583

I was almost out of college when C++ came around. So picture that. Picture that. I was like, okay, all right. Okay, I’m in. Third and a half year of college and C++ is just getting into the market. No, I started with Pascal. You know, that was my first language. That’s the like computer 101. It was for programming. It was Pascal back in the days. Yeah. And then C. That was the hardest language that we had out there. But the television, I just stuck it through. But that was not what I wanted to do. programming was not my favorite, favorite career path.

Speaker 0 | 07:57.906

So I’m holding my thoughts. I’m holding my thoughts because yeah, the, whenever someone says like, oh, I want to go into computer programming or more than this. I’m like, why? Like, okay, we’ll hide you in a room somewhere and lock you up.

Speaker 1 | 08:10.469

Yeah,

Speaker 0 | 08:11.269

absolutely. No, no, absolutely. We do.

Speaker 1 | 08:14.730

But that was not my thing. Trying to find a comma for. missing coma for four hours is not exciting for me to say the least so yeah so by the way you did ask me what was my first computer I bought my first computer when I was in my second year of college you know I imagine that almost finishing my second year of college I was without and what was my major computer computer science yeah so can can anyone imagine You’ve been having this career path of being a computer, a scientist at computers, and not have a PC. That’s what we had to deal with back in the day.

Speaker 0 | 08:58.427

Well, you had a computer lab, I’m assuming, obviously, right? Yeah,

Speaker 1 | 09:01.828

we had a computer lab that closes at nine o’clock at nine. If you wasn’t a good programmer,

Speaker 0 | 09:07.749

you were stuck. This is a good story.

Speaker 1 | 09:11.790

You were stuck.

Speaker 0 | 09:13.151

Did they allow drinks? Did they allow food in the computer lab?

Speaker 1 | 09:16.620

Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Speaker 0 | 09:20.020

Remember like the rubber keyboards? Like, I’m sure people still do it. Yeah, of course. But the keyboards were different back then. The keyboards, like they meant something. They like made a click. Remember the old like IBM keyboards that would make that clicking like the nice, it just had a nice action to it.

Speaker 1 | 09:36.125

Right, right, right. And then when I finally got a computer, there’s no internet on it, you know. So this is just a… dummy station that is sitting in my in my dorm uh you know because i went to kind of like a boarding school type um yeah so i was just sitting in my in my dorm you know i was like it was a computer that someone put together, you know, and decided to sell it to me. It’s nothing like nowadays that we buy an HP or IBM or if you’re into Mac and you know, a Mac computer. No, this is the CPU, you know, 8086, 5 megahertz, have one gig around. one megabyte of RAM.

Speaker 0 | 10:24.520

Yeah. A gig. A gig was unheard of. Remember the first terabyte? Remember when you ran into someone that had like a terabyte?

Speaker 1 | 10:31.302

That was, it was like, wow, we now can conquer the world. So yeah.

Speaker 0 | 10:38.524

Terabyte, it was like, and I love looking up at the old, the prices for old, like just, just Google old like computer ads and like the prices that you’d pay for like a… like a stupid hard drive, you know, that wasn’t right. That was not,

Speaker 1 | 10:54.151

but the memory, I remember I wanted to upgrade, um, from one, from one Meg to two Meg and hoping that my computer could take it.

Speaker 0 | 11:04.858

Get out the soldering, get out like the soldering equipment, you know, or like,

Speaker 1 | 11:09.741

yeah, well, luckily I could open it. Then, you know, it was like what we have nowadays, you know, you just plug it in, you know, you know, for sitting there. Yeah. But you just have to make sure it’s compatible and all that good stuff. We still deal with that nowadays with memory. But back then, it wasn’t an easy thing to get a hold of. And this is what, 1995, 1996.

Speaker 0 | 11:34.238

What was it like your first networking or your first kind of like technology, like leadership job? What was it? Well,

Speaker 1 | 11:41.943

actually, if you…

Speaker 0 | 11:43.124

You know, like a legit, like what you would call like a legitimate, this is like an… We need an IT director or we have an IT director. There was a time in the history of the world where computer guys weren’t taken really seriously at all. We never really thought about there needs to be a position for this person to hire them. Maybe it was an audiovisual slash computer guy. I don’t know what it was. But there was a time in the history of the world where there was no such thing as an IT director. It just didn’t exist. It didn’t. What was your first role where you were like… I’m getting a paycheck for doing technology.

Speaker 1 | 12:23.294

Well, I mean, okay. So when I was done with college, it was pretty much in 2000, you know, 1998,

Speaker 0 | 12:34.160

99, somewhere around there.

Speaker 1 | 12:34.821

Y2K. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So technology was well advanced. It just happened that I went to, you know, Puerto Rico to do my undergrad. So everything is a bit behind. But once I transitioned into the US, technology is pretty much the dominant well the somewhat dominant uh yeah feature that we have that every business have yeah um in in terms of networking right when i was done with college my first job was to help pull the data cable at the hospital right they wanted to have you know switches and internet and all that good stuff yeah so they hired me you know, to just a full data cable. So that’s how I started in the networking side of the world. And I remember when they teach me how to wire the cables and the colors, green, red.

Speaker 0 | 13:31.010

Most likely it’s still there today. Most likely.

Speaker 1 | 13:33.271

It’s still there.

Speaker 0 | 13:33.971

That same cabling you did today. And they’re either complaining about it or they’re happy. They’re like, this guy did it. It is.

Speaker 1 | 13:42.360

Before Cat5, I can’t remember what it was.

Speaker 0 | 13:45.801

Yeah, Cat3 or Cat1 if there was something, RJ11, some kind of telephone wire or something.

Speaker 1 | 13:51.885

I did not deal with the RJ11, so good thing it was RJ45. So that’s what I’m thankful for.

Speaker 0 | 14:01.490

All right, so you did all this cabling. Were we cabling into like switches or like hubs, like some kind of hub?

Speaker 1 | 14:06.493

We were pulling data cables to each single room in that. the hospital had right this is including office you know patients where the patient is that yeah into the you know the mdf room that’s so so you know you have to you have to cross-connect that’s what we used to call it back then all those different we’re still cross-connecting yeah we’re still kind of calling it cross-connect yes yes yes that’s not gonna all you’re gonna do

Speaker 0 | 14:37.352

Seems like a data center term to me. Like that’s what I’m used to, where I hear it the most. Okay. So you’re cabling hospitals. Then what?

Speaker 1 | 14:45.940

Then what? Okay. So this is, I was still living in Puerto Rico, you know, then decided to move to the US. First place was Florida for one year. started trying to get into get my foot solidify my existing in technology right in the world out there yeah um it didn’t pan out well too well in in florida so i relocated to to california and work at a big organization a big hospital slash education organization where they taught me all the in and outs of

Speaker 0 | 15:29.091

So a lot of this show is about helping other people grow up in IT, right? And some of the struggles that they have. And one of the things that we talked about on this last show with Chai, which I encourage you and everybody to listen to, was culture, was work culture. And different forms of… about racism and prejudice that people experience in the work world and kind of what we do and what we struggle with, you know, to find jobs and stuff like that. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be like racism or things that we struggle with. It could be anything. It could just be, it could be experience. It could be whatever. I’m just, I’m curious what you dealt with through different company cultures. And I mean, you said something didn’t work out well in Florida. I don’t, you know, whatever that reason is, but what, what is it? What kind of advice do you have to offer to other people, whether they be, you know, whatever it is, like what would some of your advice be when finding a job or finding a place that you like working at and a place that you fit in and basically enjoying what you do, you know, and finding your path, you know, because that’s, you know, that I’m imagining that that could be one of the biggest struggles that you’ve dealt with. I don’t know. You tell me.

Speaker 1 | 16:53.050

You know what? I. Because of my personality, because of the way how I grew up, let me give you a little bit of history of how Panama is, right? In the capital of Panama, our cultures are very mixed. We don’t necessarily see black, white, Latinos, brown, whatever.

Speaker 0 | 17:18.656

You see character, you see character and integrity. Yeah, good people, bad people. this guy’s a good guy, this guy’s a bad guy, this guy’s alright you know I have fun with this person, I don’t have fun with this person,

Speaker 1 | 17:31.582

like stay away from this guy yeah you know that’s how it should be we still deal with that a little bit but it’s just a class situation that we have because on the other side of the spectrum in the countryside of Panama it’s more you know farmers you know people that are not well educated or the, even if they are educated, the people from the Capitol will look down on, you know, the people that feeding us basically. Wow. Right. So we still have all of that. Um, but I, for the most part of my,

Speaker 0 | 18:14.086

like you mentioned, you mentioned that you were a, uh, you know, you mentioned at the beginning of the show, I’m kind of like a, what did you say? Um, you moved around a lot. Oh, I can’t remember the word. What was the word that you used? Nomad. You had nomad. Yeah. Yeah. Traveling on the Middle East. When I traveled to the Middle East, there’s the same thing. Um, I’ve been, you know, I’ve been to Egypt, I’ve been to Saudi Arabia. I’ve been, you know, I, um, it’s, I love traveling because you see what the world is really like and you get outside of this kind of bubble of, you know, Western United States culture, whatever we call it, which I find to be very boring sometimes and stale. Um, But, you know, yeah, you have like, they have like Bedouins in the Middle East and they’re like very harsh, you know, like constantly traveling, like, you know, drive, you know, a white Toyota, you know, pickup truck. But, and I’m not even, here I am being like, you know, prejudiced towards Bedouins, but I’m saying like there is, you see the difference. Like you hear how different cultures talk about different areas or different groups of people. And like you said, like here we are looking down upon the people that feed us. Right. All right. It was just a cool comment. I just,

Speaker 1 | 19:23.707

well, the thing is, is that we, I consider myself very culturally educated. So if I ever deal with that type of situation, I’m here in the U S I, I, what do you got to do is just move on. I mean, yes, know your value. That’s what I will say to tell anyone. Um, if I, if I have to give a sound advice is that just know your value. And if they don’t respect how valuable you are. in that organization, then move on. Yes, of course, if there is an illegal action that you need to take, of course, go for it. But if it’s just the unconscious bias that everyone deals with, because it’s always going to be around, just know your value and know your place and speak up when you need to. And if it doesn’t pan out, then just move on. That’s the example. That’s the best advice I could give. Give in at one.

Speaker 0 | 20:21.947

Yeah, I think we were thinking about like toxic work cultures and stuff because there’s a lot of that kind of in the environment lately. And it might not even be like a, you know, toxic work culture could just be, you know, we hired a bunch of millennials that are gamers. You know what I mean? Like, and I just don’t fit in, you know, like, so what’s the deal? Like, you know, like you said, move on. You know, your value, like this just isn’t the right, you know, there’s something to be said about company culture. It’s different at every company. It is.

Speaker 1 | 20:48.328

It is. To your point about all the millennials Now they’re a bunch of gamers But the thing is that We can learn from them because Their artistic side of them I think that’s something that We do not have Because we are boxed into When people used to tell us Do this, do that We stick to it But the millennials do not They will question everything They have our other side That they try to figure out how to solve the problem in a different manner. So we have to give them that type of liberty to explore and see how they bring value to the organization.

Speaker 0 | 21:32.597

Yeah. Love it. Love it. Yeah. True. Yeah. Just give me orders. I don’t want to be the leader. Like I like taking orders, you know, I have no problem. Just, just take orders. I’m good. Just give me a good leader. That’s the hard part. How do you find a good leader? So again, so back then to people growing up in technology, what’s your advice?

Speaker 1 | 21:56.832

Well, my advice is…

Speaker 0 | 21:59.134

And number one, I want number one too, because a lot of people say, oh, you know, go get certifications, get this, get that. But no, really, what… And I think most people kind of know that. What’s your advice to someone that might be just different?

Speaker 1 | 22:13.106

Listen, I’m not too pro certification because here’s the thing. Let’s use Microsoft as an example. We have MCFC.

Speaker 0 | 22:25.885

We’re on LinkedIn, by the way, that’s owned by Microsoft. Just so you know, that’s where this podcast is going to be released. So it’s a great example. So it’s a great example. Anyways, go ahead.

Speaker 1 | 22:36.134

Because we had back then MCFC, right? Yeah. Does MCFC exist today? No. So. So yes, it was a way how to get your foot into the door and expand your career and keep moving up. But I’m very pro-education. I think the foundation should come from even a trade school, college, two-year degree, whatever case may be. But yes, to get your foot in, I think those things matter. But then you have to decide that, hey, maybe someone knows someone that knows someone that opens the door for you and allow you to work in a certain company that you do not need the four-year college degree or the two-year associate degree, whatever case may be.

Speaker 0 | 23:32.044

So in short, what you’re saying is network with people.

Speaker 1 | 23:35.806

Network with people. Yes. Yes, absolutely. Very important.

Speaker 0 | 23:39.889

And be a likable person. Network with people and be a likable person.

Speaker 1 | 23:44.011

Well, that’s a hard thing in IT. We normally do not like to be mingling with people, but we have to. We have to change. We have to get out of our comfort zone and be out there and network with people and learn from each other. So yes, yes, exactly.

Speaker 0 | 24:09.541

So any advice there though? Honestly, was there anything that you ever did to like, well, you’re like, well, first of all, be from Panama where we’re all like awesome. For everyone that’s not from Panama, what do they do?

Speaker 1 | 24:24.191

Yeah, network with people, go to school, find something. Again, do your research. First, do your research. If you want to be a programmer, well, what was the best way to?

Speaker 0 | 24:42.059

Just don’t be a programmer. Just don’t be a programmer because you’re afraid to talk with people. If you want to be a programmer, be a programmer.

Speaker 1 | 24:48.965

If you like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you like it.

Speaker 0 | 24:50.566

You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 | 24:52.027

Always if that’s what you want, not because you want to make money. You want to be miserable in any career if you just want to make money. I would never advise someone to do something for the rest of your life just to make money.

Speaker 0 | 25:06.099

Well, is there a part in your life where you were scared? What was the scariest thing you’ve ever had to do? And when I say scared, I mean like anxiety, fear, I don’t want to do this. Like I’m going to avoid doing this because I’m scared.

Speaker 1 | 25:21.724

Well, scarcity will not stop me from doing anything. I’m a risk taker. That’s number one, because I look at scarceness as an impediment to move forward.

Speaker 0 | 25:39.949

Fear will not stop me.

Speaker 1 | 25:42.129

Fear will not stop me. I will never advise anyone to stop doing something because they are scared.

Speaker 0 | 25:48.571

I was. I was terrified through my first two to three years of high school. I walked down the hallway with my head down. I spoke with nobody. I was pretty much living terrified in the shell of a body. And I don’t know what happened at what point, where it was, but I think basically I… When you said push yourself out of your comfort zone, some people, there’s a book that this PhD lady wrote called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyways. There’s, I think it was a group of events of forcing myself to confront all of these fears like head on and just go do it anyways as much as you, because a lot of people are afraid of failure. A lot of people say like, no, they’re afraid of success. I don’t. get that. I am not afraid of success. I’ll tell you that right now. I don’t get that saying, well, you’re really afraid of success. No, I’m pretty sure I’m okay with success if that happens. No, I’m afraid of failure. I mean, so the more that I kind of confronted that and like just went and you know how they say fail forward, like all those things, they really are legit. And then you have modern day and back to, I’m not picking on the millennials because I think there’s something to be said there because it might be a different psychology. A lot of them hate the old, they hate that old psychology of feel the fear and do it anyways and this, that and everything else. I don’t know. There’s something to be said there.

Speaker 1 | 27:23.702

But with failure, somehow we learn from that fail. Yeah. Whatever.

Speaker 0 | 27:30.226

And we fix and we alter. We fix and alter and make progress. And if you don’t ever do that, if you don’t ever go fail, you’re never going to get better. You just sit around and do nothing. Yeah,

Speaker 1 | 27:39.784

that’s the point. Now you’re an example because you say you used to walk with your head down. It’s kind of where you are.

Speaker 0 | 27:45.488

Yeah, it’s like really weird.

Speaker 1 | 27:46.128

Here you are, you know, putting yourself out there.

Speaker 0 | 27:49.670

People don’t get it.

Speaker 1 | 27:50.271

For people to hear your podcast.

Speaker 0 | 27:51.452

Yeah, it’s weird. It’s like public speaking. Someone said to me the other day, you have no problem public speaking. I was like, I’ve been doing it for so long, I don’t even think about it. I was like, the first one thing that helped with public speaking was because they say that people fear public speaking more than death. So the, you know, I can’t remember. It was like Seinfeld or somebody’s like, so the person in the coffin. The person giving the speech, the eulogy would rather be in the coffin than the person. And I remember when I had to start doing public speaking, I learned how to flip the script. So a lot of times people are afraid to get up on stage and talk because everyone’s staring at them. But what’s really scary about being in the audience? What’s really scary about being in the audience is if the person on stage speaking actually picks you out. and asks you a question from the audience. All of a sudden you’re like, oh my gosh, like all eyes are on me. So I learned from public speaking to flip the script and just put the pressure on the audience instead. So anyways, that was just one trick for anyone out there that’s afraid of public speaking. Just start asking questions. Be like, I’m going to ask someone at random in the audience if what you think, you know what I mean? Like start putting the pressure on them. Anywho.

Speaker 1 | 29:00.889

I think someone gave me a good advice once for to… conquer that fear of public speaking. Just think that you are helping someone.

Speaker 0 | 29:11.247

Yeah, exactly. It’s all about them. Exactly. It’s all about them. Put a stamp on their forehead. This might’ve been Brian Tracy. I can’t remember who it was. He basically said, he basically said, you should write on everyone’s forehead. This might be the seven habits of like, I can’t remember. You should, you should imagine on every single person that you speak to, like that they’re the most important person in the world.

Speaker 1 | 29:33.079

Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 0 | 29:34.680

How would you speak to whoever it is, like whatever one of your biggest role models are, character, people, like how would you treat that person? How would you speak to them and then go treat everyone like that?

Speaker 1 | 29:48.563

With respect. With respect. Yeah. Knowing that I can learn from that person as well. It doesn’t matter where they’re at in life. Yeah. Right. One of my favorite public speaker is John Maxwell. Why? Because he’s always trying to. help someone.

Speaker 0 | 30:05.277

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 | 30:06.419

He’s not speaking for himself.

Speaker 0 | 30:08.142

Yeah. Get out. Stop being selfish. This is not about you. Like everything should be about everyone else first and then worry. And then, then correct. You know, you’ll get along. You’ll be all right.

Speaker 1 | 30:16.856

You will be all right. Yes. besides what’s the worst that could happen anyways you die you bomb well guess what you learn from it get up and move on tomorrow will be just another day yeah yeah so I think there’s something to be said there I don’t know how many

Speaker 0 | 30:36.099

IT directors are out there that need to so I guess okay so let’s hit on some of those things and what are some of those points where you said I’m willing to take a risk here I’m willing to push myself forward what would you say are some of the main areas that that people need to be pushing themselves forward in order to live a better life, be more successful, feel more invigorating. Because when you push through those barriers, when you push through those comfort zones, we get stuck in the everyday regular things, right? But when we push ourselves outside of our comfort zone, something happens. We might be a little bit scared, might have some anxiety or whatever, but all of a sudden life has more meaning. Life just is more exciting. You know, it’s just better.

Speaker 1 | 31:14.943

All right. So let me, okay, we are in technology. Technology never is the same. The only constant thing is change. So we have to continuously evolving and changing and adapting. We don’t get better by doing the same thing that we did a year ago. As a matter of fact, a few hours ago. Because something new might come out that we need to learn from. That’s the only way to… continuously progressing in this life to continuously advancing and that this is not only your career but also in your personal life if i ever hold on to a job and continuously doing the same thing i did five years ago or even not picking up a book or listening to podcasts and learning from others yeah then i feel like i’m not growing i might as well be dead That’s the way I live my life. If I feel stuck at the job, not bringing any value, just showing up to work because I’m showing up to work, then what’s the point? That’s the way I feel. Unfortunately, we do have people like that in the world.

Speaker 0 | 32:29.178

But guess what? What would your advice be? Okay, so what would your advice be to the person whose job that needs to get done every day and it’s completely monotonous? Well,

Speaker 1 | 32:39.422

yeah, we will.

Speaker 0 | 32:42.816

What’s your advice to them? What’s your advice? And we need, but we need you.

Speaker 1 | 32:47.697

If they’re happy, first of all, if they’re happy doing what they’re doing, repetitive action, because we do need them. I’m not going to knock on them because we do, we need people that love to do that kind of stuff. You know, just data entry and just do their job, don’t bother me and go home. But I’m pretty sure, I’m pretty sure that that person outside of their work, they do, evolve in other areas because they might have kids, they might…

Speaker 0 | 33:14.765

And if they’ve been there for a long time, they’re probably one of the… They probably love talking with people. It’s probably some other aspect of the job that…

Speaker 1 | 33:21.366

Exactly. So they might not progress in one area, but they’re progressing in others. And some people, it is you know, it’s like a 360 view that, hey, if I’m not progressing everywhere, then what am I doing? And I guess I’m that type, you know. If I’m progressing at you know, my personal life, career, then I feel that I’m, what should I say? I’m adding value to this world, you know, I’m not a useless human being. Of course, I’m being exaggerated here, but that’s the way how I view it for the most part. So it all depends on the personality of that individual and how happy they are in their life. But if you want to change, if that role that you are in right now as in just data entry is not fulfilling you, then do it. But in your leisure time, pick something else. You know, whether it’s, again, listening to a podcast, picking up a book, whatever case may be, and then apply what you’re learning on your own to work. And then you will continuously succeed in life.

Speaker 0 | 34:43.273

Yeah, yeah. What’s it like working for you?

Speaker 1 | 34:46.694

Wow. Someone asked me that question a few weeks ago.

Speaker 0 | 34:51.035

Weird. It must be. You must just draw this. You must just draw this type of question. I’ve never asked that question in my life. I just came to mind.

Speaker 1 | 34:59.558

Well, I do love to empower others. Okay. I remember once I reported to the president of the company that I currently work for, and I was telling him, like, hey, so, yes, I think it was year two that I’ve been working there, or a year and a half. and I was telling him like hey this or our management meetings I feel like you know there’s something missing yeah we are just order takers and we are not fulfilling what we need to do to advance as a as a unit as to advance of what this company needs and he challenged me like hey just talk to them challenge them I give you the opportunity to to lead in that manner And I was like, okay. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it because, you know, I’m like, again, scarceness about.

Speaker 0 | 35:57.281

And then you were like, well, I challenge you to give me an unlimited budget for IT technology and see what I do with it.

Speaker 1 | 36:06.905

But these were others, you know, managers of freight operation, managers of customer service. So other departments and it wasn’t IT, right? It was. a collective unit of a business in the middle level management, he was challenging me to challenge them. So it took a role upon me to just continuously speaking, to continuously empowering them and just keep moving that needle. Even the people that directly report to me, I always like to empower them. What does that mean? Give them the opportunity to fail. and not hold it against them. That’s my leadership style, so to speak. Now, if they do it three or four times, then we have a problem. But for the most part, I love to empower others because at some point, someone did give me the opportunity to continue my career path, my career growth. So why not pay it forward?

Speaker 0 | 37:15.530

Plus, there’s just no way you can do everything anyway. So there’s a benefit. There’s a selfish benefit, which is I get to delegate everything to other people. I’m still trying to figure out how we can do this. I’m still trying to figure out how I can get my wife to… Okay, how do we do this? I’m trying to get my wife to empower the children to do all these tasks that she does. And I keep telling her, like, look, the key is delegation. Well, they’re not going to fold right. They’re not going to do the laundry right. They’re not going to, there’s like, who cares? Show them. Who cares? You’re not doing it anymore. Like seriously. Okay. So I failed. So, okay. So I’m your employee.

Speaker 1 | 37:55.874

So my, my advice to you will be,

Speaker 0 | 37:59.296

Aldino, I failed. Yeah. I failed at empowering. I failed at empowering my, at coaching my wife to empower the children to do other things. How do I, how do I, Yeah. So, so really you’re the CEO now and I’m you, and, um, I don’t know how to, uh, I don’t know how to get empowered these people, or I don’t actually know. Am I the CEO? I don’t know what I am. Here’s what I am. I’m the guy that failed at telling my wife to empower me.

Speaker 1 | 38:30.120

CEO. Okay. She’s the CEO.

Speaker 0 | 38:32.822

I failed it. I failed at coaching you. I failed at coaching you to empower people. So, you know, what was it like, how did you let go? That’s the question. The question is, how do you let go of control?

Speaker 1 | 38:47.578

At the end of the day, again, it’s all about knowing your value. Then live your life as a project manager. At the end of the project, you evaluate. Did I move the needle? What was successful? What failed? What could I change? At the end of that evaluation process, if it… If there is something that you said, an office is an office, it’s time for me to move on, then do it.

Speaker 0 | 39:17.841

Okay, so let me ask you this.

Speaker 1 | 39:18.803

If you realize it’s a project, manage it.

Speaker 0 | 39:20.625

This is the key. So you’re going to give people the opportunity to fail and you’re literally… like about to lose your mind because you’re kind of like looking away but you’re kind of looking back with like one eye partially open and the other eye closed and like you know what they’re going to do and you like pretty much like or you don’t know what they’re going to do but you’re like just so don’t want to let them fail but you’ve got to let them fail

Speaker 1 | 39:49.077

I don’t know what what that is is how do you get someone to let go of that failure piece you just have to guide them advice you know especially look at it this point uh ask questions don’t do it yes ask question um you know yes give them an example of where they could do it better but at the end of the day just take a step back let that person learn from their failure or or actually you can learn from them like oh wow i didn’t know that it could have we could accomplish it this way because we don’t know everything in the world and our ways i’m not the type of person that to think to think always that my way is the only way um

Speaker 0 | 40:34.614

i think that’s what do you do about mediocrity what do you do about mediocrity mediocre employees you’ll be patient You know what one works for me? You know what question works for me? Are you proud of this work? Is this the best? Honestly, at the end of the day, is this your best work that you can do? Are you proud of this? If so-and-so saw this, is this your best work?

Speaker 1 | 41:04.744

Okay, that’s a good example, but I’m going to give you another example. Oh, great. If I will.

Speaker 0 | 41:11.246

Just so you know, I was thinking of my, of course I allow you. I’m just thinking of, I’m thinking of my, I’m thinking of my twin 10 year olds, you know, when they turn in a project. Is this the best work that you can do?

Speaker 1 | 41:23.916

You’re right.

Speaker 0 | 41:24.997

Seriously, like you used one color, you used one crayon to get, you could tell like it was like, I’m just getting the job done. Like, okay, like I don’t care. I’m doing it because you told me to do it, you know, and there’s a lot to be said there.

Speaker 1 | 41:39.269

It’s easy for me to say it now because it’s already. past and now you’re bringing it to the table so because i could say yes you could have used another methods like hey what if you had used this other color don’t you think that we will you know your work will look absolutely um 90 better come let me help you here no way helping and then you empower that person to continue on yeah but i’m from the outside so that was fast But when you’re in this situation, you know, it’s a totally different story. Yeah. But let me give a good example of one of my past job. Okay. I wasn’t in leadership. I was pretty much the system engineer or system analyst slash project manager when needed. Middle manager My title wasn’t even manager I used to report to the manager But still yet For some reason Because of my background Headquarters used to reach out to me And give me projects to lead My situation With that organization It was I don’t want to give too much It’s okay We get it

Speaker 0 | 43:02.180

Everyone listening knows exactly what you’re talking about. Everyone that’s been there knows you need to say, say no more. Say no more. We get it.

Speaker 1 | 43:13.523

Yeah. My frustration is that the entire company felt like they didn’t care. I had situations that, okay, we order again. Back then my title was, was system analyst slash project manager, right? Primary role, system analyst. So I’m here supporting the community.

Speaker 0 | 43:35.486

Yep. How do you make people care?

Speaker 1 | 43:37.127

Someone is asking me to order XYZ for them.

Speaker 0 | 43:40.390

Aldino, how do you make people care?

Speaker 1 | 43:44.553

That’s the thing. If the culture of the organization was that, after the end of that project, I evaluated and I saw that this wasn’t my place. I need to go.

Speaker 0 | 43:59.804

otherwise I will otherwise I will that is what we call that is what we call a fail that is what we call a fail forward

Speaker 1 | 44:12.431

I am going to chalk this up I’m going to chalk this up as know when to know when to like you know just give up give up yeah let them you know do their thing it seems like okay or either adopt and become one of them or I just, you know, thank you for the opportunity. But this wasn’t a good fit for me and it’s time for me to move on.

Speaker 0 | 44:40.557

I was really hoping for a big answer there on how to make people care because I can’t move on. I can’t do that with my kids. If he doesn’t care, he just doesn’t care. You’re like, yeah.

Speaker 1 | 44:49.901

Hey, asshole boy, because otherwise you won’t eat. You want to end up with cancer or something because you’re worrying too much. Whatever it is, maybe.

Speaker 0 | 45:00.909

Oh, so in other words, give up.

Speaker 1 | 45:03.151

Okay. Hey,

Speaker 0 | 45:04.273

you know what? Hey, son, guess what? I’m done. Okay? Like, do whatever the heck you want. I’m done.

Speaker 1 | 45:13.629

exactly exactly well do what you want because if you still live under my roof I still yeah yeah I know like you can’t play with matches you still can’t play with matches you still can’t no right right

Speaker 0 | 45:27.882

I gotcha I gotcha this has been a pleasure it has been great having you on the show if in all seriousness what well Well, I guess if you had one piece of advice, I ask this a lot. If you had one piece of advice kind of surrounding the topic of fear, and some people don’t have any fear at all because they just don’t care. Is there something that you bring? What would you say is one of the biggest learning experiences that you’ve learned from failure, I guess? What’s your biggest fail learning moment?

Speaker 1 | 46:02.958

Well, the important thing is the maturity level that we have. as an individual in this world because you do know that we do have people that fail but don’t learn from those failures why because they don’t take the time to evaluate where they’re at in life and how much they have progressed or have not progressed whatever whatever whatever that situation that that person wants to do at the end of their life you know what will they say in your eulogy right but if If you have friends, of course, you know, sometimes we can have the worst people in the world. And once they’re dead, they’re the best. I’m not talking about that type of person. I’m talking about the true meaning of friendships and others. What would they say at the end of your lifetime? Right. That’s good.

Speaker 0 | 46:57.578

So evaluating, I think that’s really good. Like evaluating where you’re at. And are you progressing?

Speaker 1 | 47:01.908

By the way,

Speaker 0 | 47:02.228

where you at? Like right now, it’s an important question that hits home with me because I was taking care of my mother for a year and pretty much doing, you know, nothing other than taking care of my parents. And I mean, I was doing, you know, podcasts and doing the business as usual type of thing. But I think a lot of people can get stagnant at a certain point, especially at our point in life. You know, mid 40s is mid 40s is one of the highest suicide rates for men. Um, and that could be for numerous reasons. Like they worked their whole life to the mid forties and then they realized like they were living a lie or their relationship was a lie or whatever it was, you know, that’s like kind of one of the number one reasons. But yeah, where, you know, where are you at and where are you progressing? I think that’s a, it’s, um, a good, it’s a good question because people, and then even successful people can get really successful. The other point is, is the other most. The irony to that is one of the, the age that even men are most successful at, and I don’t mean to make this, um, you know, like a sexist conversation by any means, but I’m just speaking, I’m a man. So I’m going to speak from my perspective, like, you know, one of the most, um, kind of most successful, uh, periods in a, in a, you know, in our life as well as kind of like mid forties, right. Um, whether it be, whether it be even, you know, sexual marketplace value or, um, you know, how they’ve matured, you know what I mean? Because women tend to mature, like, you know, kind of even at an earlier age and men tend to kind of like, you know, get into a stride even later in life. So, um, but what I’ve found is that there’s a lot of men, even in my industry, even just looking around that become very successful and they get stagnant. In other words, once they’re driving a Mercedes, once the house is paid off once, you know, it’s like, what’s the point? Like what was the point,

Speaker 1 | 48:57.717

right? Because they were doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Speaker 0 | 48:59.718

Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 | 49:00.859

It was just chasing something that think that will…

Speaker 0 | 49:03.462

The lifestyle. Yeah,

Speaker 1 | 49:04.803

yeah. Yeah. And then they finally realized that they were doing it all for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 0 | 49:10.347

Some shallow form of existence, you know? So I’m glad we’re on the same page there. Yeah. Yeah. And I would ask you about, you know, what it was like. I just want to state why is Puerto Rico not a state yet? I don’t know that. And some… I’ll probably have a lot of Puerto Rican friends I do have a lot of Puerto Rican friends that are going to get mad at me you’re clueless, you’re just like another white guy that’s clueless I’m just putting it out there I wish Puerto Rican was in this I know it should be a state they should anyways that was all, I’ll end with that thank you very much sir for being on the show it’s been great thank you for the chance

Speaker 1 | 49:54.452

to come on here and just share some knowledge and just have a conversation. Yeah, so thank you.